April 24, 2009

We recently took our first jaunt beyond the borders of the Netherlands. Good word, “jaunt”: it conveys the ease with which travel is done here. The whole trip we kept turning to each other, a little giddy, and giggling, “we’re in a whole other country!” And it felt different too, despite the fact that it was only a two and a half hour train ride from Amsterdam.

I have never been one to travel to the US very often, so perhaps such fluidity of movement isn’t shocking to you back home who do travel back and forth, but it seems to me the whole affair was far too easy: we simply bought our train tickets and were off. We weren’t even asked for our passports. Advantages, I suppose, of a European Union.

There is a tangible difference between countries here despite their relative proximity. The differences lie in the little things, as they say. In Brussels, the energy itself was different: the air dirtier, the people more professional, a little more removed but still friendly. On a personal level, I felt bodily relief to finally be able to speak one of the local languages. Made conversation with everyone just so I could savor speaking French again.

Also made in interesting linguistic discovery: In Holland when you say thank you to folks here they respond with a Dutch word that means “if you please”. Similarly, the French-speaking Belgians respond with the same term in French, “s’il vous plait”. Each time I bought something from a store clerk in Brussels, I felt like I was in a 17th century period piece with servants who respond to my thanks with “If you please madam”.

For lodging we stayed right on the big shopping street in a calm North American style hotel (allow me some small familiarities!). People seemed to take shopping very seriously there. Indeed our fashion conscious friend in Holland told us that Belgium is the place to do. Even Peter got in the spirit and I managed to get him to try on a few outfits…we bought a few very styling tops. Quite please with myself, actually. In Toronto Peter would never acquiesce to a shopping expedition, and while I’m no big shopper myself, the man really did need new clothes. Men here are, incidentally, are much more fashion-conscious; there are entire boutiques devoted to men’s clothes here and they do good business. My new goal is to find Peter a pink shirt…